As Cincinnati crowd cheers, Romney says U.S. needs new head coach

Saturday

Sep 1, 2012 at 12:01 AMSep 1, 2012 at 7:12 PM

CINCINNATI - Hoarse from the week that was and interrupted by a bone-rattling outpouring of support, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney delivered a short speech this morning at the city's old Union Terminal train station. Not lost on him that today is the day college football kicks off on most major campuses - including Ohio State, where his running mate Paul Ryan is watching the Buckeyes play Miami University - Romney said: "If you have a coach that is 0-23 million (as in unemployed Americans), it's time to get a new coach."

Joe Vardon, The Columbus Dispatch

CINCINNATI — Hoarse from the week that was and interrupted by a bone-rattling outpouring of support, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney delivered a short speech this morning at the city’s old Union Terminal train station.

Not lost on him that today is the day college football kicks off on most major campuses — including Ohio State, where his running mate Paul Ryan is watching the Buckeyes play Miami University — Romney said: “If you have a coach that is 0-23 million (as in unemployed or underemployed Americans), it’s time to get a new coach.

“It’s time for America to see a winning season again, and we’re going to bring it to them,” Romney said to about 3,000 packed inside the old station.

Romney was joined on stage by his wife, Ann, by U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, and by U.S. Sen. Rob Portman — all of them coming off important roles at the just completed Republican National Convention in Tampa. Their speeches were short and their messages compacted from what they delivered at the convention.

Romney’s voice sounded strained at times, but he got a little reprieve when the crowd went crazy on his behalf — launching into a sustained cheer of “Mitt, Mitt, Mitt” — causing Romney to place his hand over his heart in appreciation.

“United, America built the strongest economy in the history of the Earth,” Romney said, shortly after the pause. “United, we put Neil Armstrong on the moon. United, we faced down unspeakable darkness. United, our men and women in uniform continue to defend freedom today.

“This is a time for us to come together as a nation. We do not have to have the kind of divisiveness and bitterness and recriminations we've seen over the last four years.”

Jessica Kershaw, a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign in Ohio, fired back.

“Fresh off the heels of his so-called convention reinvention, Mitt Romney continues to tear down President Obama with false and completely debunked rhetoric instead of lifting up the country as he visited the Queen City today,” she said. “Much like his speech in Tampa, what Romney gave Cincinnatians today was nothing more than empty words and no tangible ideas to move the country forward.

“What he failed to share were his actual proposals, which would take our country backward to the failed economic policies of the past: $5 trillion in budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy paid for by the middle class and ends Medicare as we know it, turning it into a voucher program.”

The Union Terminal is now a museums center and houses an Omnimax Theater, but Amtrak trains still operate out of it. Romney’s pledged to eliminate a federal subsidy for Amtrak if elected.

The terminal also is where then-President George W. Bush made his case to the country for the United States’ eventual invasion of Iraq in October 2002.

Accusing Iraq of possessing and seeking “weapons of mass destruction,” Bush said here before a national TV audience that “America must not ignore the threat gathering against us” and “cannot wait for the final proof.”

Those weapons were never found, but Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was captured, tried, and killed in a war that stretched for nearly nine years.

Both Bush and Iraq were more or less out of sight and mind at the convention. Bush didn’t attend, and Romney made no mention of Iraq in his speech Thursday night.

Romney also did not discuss America’s military efforts in Afghanistan Thursday night. Obama’s spent the weekend commemorating the second anniversary of his ending of combat missions in Iraq and of the Afghanistan troop drawdown to be completed by 2014.

“While the (Iraq) war itself remains a source of controversy here at home, one thing will never be in doubt — the members of our armed forces are patriots in every sense of the word,” Obama said in his weekly radio address today. “This anniversary is a chance to appreciate how far we’ve come. But it’s also a reminder that there is still difficult work ahead of us in Afghanistan. ... We’ve broken the Taliban’s momentum in Afghanistan, and begun the transition to an Afghan lead.”

jvardon@dispatch.com

@joevardon

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